


The Nonplatonic Allegory of the Cave

by AuntAgony



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Appropriate Use of Rescue, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Important Hats, Light Angst, Light Dom/sub, Mutual Masturbation, Recreational Drug Use, Size Difference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:27:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21845911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuntAgony/pseuds/AuntAgony
Summary: A half-cocked foray into Lakeland leads to G'raha Tia and Lotus Eater having a conversation they should have had years ago.
Relationships: G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51





	The Nonplatonic Allegory of the Cave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kyara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyara/gifts).



> Based on the prompt: "Crystal Exarch/WoL: What should have been a short excursion into Lakeland ended with them trapped in a cave and waiting for help." Happy holidays!!
> 
> Some of you may recognize Lotus Eater from fantastic works like [Snag](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20622449) or [The Very Worst White Mage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20511677).

"Raha," he heard the Warrior of Light say, distant but insistent. He stirred in a haze and canted his head towards her voice.

" _Raha_. Wake up, Raha," she said, closer now, and he felt warm hands — her hands — on his shoulders, on his chest, and heard himself whimper. 

"Oh, Menphina's _tits,_ " she sighed as something soft but heavy began striking him repeatedly, and _that_ woke him up. 

Lotus Eater loomed over the Exarch where he lay in his bedclothes, tangled in a nest of disheveled bedding. She had taken her hat off — that ostentatious red tricorne with a white feather plume she was never without — and was presently hitting him with it, though she ceased once she saw he was finally awake. She stared down at him with an expression of deepest amusement on her face and asked dryly, "Having a good dream?" 

"How did you even get in here?" he asked incredulously, vision still blurry from sleep as he rose to sit and groped for his robes. 

Lotus gave him a look that said _really?_ as she set her hat on her head at a jaunty angle. She was short and lean for a Roegadyn but easily two fulms taller than he, two and a half if you counted the hat (which she did). She had smoky grey-green eyes in a dark, narrow face, and even with her hat he could see the premature greys in her short auburn hair. 

"So word is there's a great bloody chimera stalking Lakeland," she said casually. 

G'raha suddenly looked nervous. "Yes," he said carefully, "I'm familiar with the stories." 

"Not exactly native beasts, chimeras." 

"No. No they are not." 

"Right. It was sighted near the Source early this morning, so we're gonna go take care of it." 

"Wait," said G'raha, holding up a hand. "You shouldn't be bothering yourself with this. There are hunters for this sort of thing, if it's been sighted — wait, we?" 

"I'm the Warrior of Light. Darkness. Variable luminosity, whatever. That means I can do whatever the fuck I want," she said, jabbing her finger into his chest, "and it's your mess to begin with, so get your shit and let's go." 

G'raha muttered dourly under his breath and lashed his tail but began donning his robes and lacing up his sandals. 

"You're the one that wanted to go on adventures," she said in a sing-song voice, eyeing him cannily as he dressed. "It'll be fun. It's just a chimera, anyway. It's probably harmless." 

***

It wasn't. 

Tyger, the great chimera of Lakeland, roared its fury from three massive tooth-lined maws as the overpowering stink of ozone and smoke filled the air. To her credit, half of the stench at least had to be from the red magic brought to bear by Lotus herself, who did her humble best to bring the beast down with spell and rapier and had, after awhile, managed to perhaps chip a few of its claws and not die. 

G'raha was, as always, in awe of her. When he knew her last she was a thaumaturge that dabbled in conjury, then practiced enough at both to be impressive but still nothing compared to this consummation of the two arts. He supported her with every spell and art at his disposal, but it was rapidly becoming plain that even their combined might was not going to be enough. Already the energy he had expended was beginning to sorely tax him, compounded by being so far from the Tower. 

"Lotus, might I suggest we _abscond_?" he cried over the sharp crack of rime flash-freezing a patch of earth mere yalms from where he stood. 

Twisting mid-leap, she skidded to a halt near him, rocks and dust swirling around her. "Aayyyep," she said, panting, eyes fixed on the beast now bearing down on them. "Possibly we've overextended ourselves a bit." 

The beast reared as it approached and they each darted in opposite directions. With one great forepaw it cuffed Lotus, sending her, her rapier, and her hat flying. Heedlessly, she lunged to grab her hat just as the dragon's head lunged for _her._ G'raha shouted wordlessly, aetheric bindings looping around her torso and yanking her bodily to him just as those forearm-long teeth snapped shut where she had been seconds ago. 

"Fuck," she breathed, and then "fuck" again for good measure. He grabbed her by the forearm, gesturing towards the just-visible mouth of a cave in the nearby cliff face as the both of them broke into a dead run. It seemed large enough for the two of them and, he prayed, deep enough to hide them from the scourge of flame, ice, and levin on their trail. 

The chimera, with size and anger on its side, gained on them rapidly. Hot breath washed over them mere yalms from the cave entrance and G'raha dove instinctively inside, Lotus following him half a moment too late as the beast's leonine jaws closed on her leg. The sound of rending fabric and flesh was followed by the agonizingly gut-dropping **_crack_** of a bone in her leg snapping like a twig, and she screamed in a high note of pain and shock. Without pausing to think, G'raha whipped around and conjured a lash of smoke and flame aimed at the monster's face and eyes that, while graceless, was effective; it released her with an ear-shattering howl of pain as he grabbed her shoulders and hauled her deeper into the cave, the beast thrashing around in its agony. It slammed repeatedly into the cliff face and, with a sinking feeling of foreboding, he felt and heard the shifting of rock all around them. 

"Raha," she gasped, face grey and glistening with sweat, just before the entrance collapsed, engulfing them in dust and darkness. 

***

Slowly, tremulously, a cool light trickled into the cave. Lotus slowly opened her eyes and saw G'raha holding an aetherial lantern he had dug out of her bag, the heatless and smokeless device shedding a dim blue-white light. When she tried to move from where she lay sprawled on the floor she yelped in pain, glancing down long enough to see bone through the gashes in her boots and trousers. 

"Raha," she said through gritted teeth, "what can you do? I'm — I can't Vercure this." 

G'raha kneeled and bent over her leg, shaky and exhausted and too wrung out to draw more than a trickle from the Tower. He ripped one of the broken leather straps from his ringbands and handed it to her, and dutifully she bit down on it; with a smooth, firm yank he straightened and set the bone as she hissed and groaned in agony. Scintillating bands of light sunk into her flesh where he ran his hands over her, and eventually he attempted to straighten up only to slump against the wall next to where she say propped up, setting his staff aside. 

"I've put a slow healing in it," he said in a thin voice. "It will take time to mend properly. It's all I can manage right now." 

"Time?" 

"A few hours, maybe." 

Lotus released a florid stream of curses. "Of all the fucking — how exactly do you let _that thing_ loose by accident anyway?" she snapped. "And you just fucking _let it go_?!" 

G'raha bristled, ears flattening. "The Tower contained many leftover experiments and guardians from Allag. I wasn't able to contain or control them all." 

She scrubbed her face with her hands and took a deep breath. "Alright. Okay. Look, I know, I'm sorry. Help me up, alright?" 

Gingerly, he lifted her until she could sit propped up, taking care to move her leg as little as he could manage. Pulling her rucksack closer, he began digging through it as he said brusquely, "Your back and shoulder are bleeding and I'm sure you've broken some ribs. You brought other healing supplies, didn't you?" 

"Don't. It's fine. I'm fine. Take care of yourself with them." 

"I wasn't hurt save for a few bruises. Just be still and let me take care of you." he said, an edge of snappishness to his voice. 

Lotus slowly turned to look at him, and he met the sight of the hard line of her mouth with an equally stubborn one of his own. She sighed, and her expression softened. 

"Alright. Okay," she said, and he felt himself smile despite himself. 

Sections of her shirt were little more than tattered strips of cloth soaked with blood, so G'raha carefully peeled these away from her until she was bare from the waist up save for a black breastband. Wiping away the blood confirmed that the gashes and scrapes were mostly superficial and looked a great deal worse than they were; a miracle, by his reckoning, but he still applied an acerbic-smelling salve from her things to promote their healing, and sank the last dregs of his magic into her flesh to take care of her ribs. She flinched at the sting but remained silent. 

"You should be more careful, you know," he said softly as he worked. "You're important, and you're not immortal." 

"Kindly spare the lecture, sweet Raha. I've heard it before." 

"Perhaps it's past time you _heed_ it, then." 

Lotus turned away and snorted softly. "Gods, you're worse than Alphie sometimes. Like an annoying little brother." 

G'raha felt privately grateful she wasn't looking at him to see his face fall. "Is that what you think of me as? A brother?" 

He felt her weight shift slightly. "I mean, you're just kind of small and doofy—" 

"I am not _small_ and I'm older than you, you know—" 

"Alright, whatever you say grandpa. Hey, hand me my shit if you're finished," she said, beckoning for her rucksack until he passed it to her. Lotus dug around inside until she found a little oilcloth bundle, and when she unwrapped the contents G'raha scoffed and said, "You have got to be kidding." 

The hand-rolled joint Lotus now held between her lips indicated she was not, in fact, kidding. She snapped her fingers and a little flame danced on her index finger, just long enough for her to light it and inhale deeply before passing it to G'raha. 

"I haven't smoked since I was in the academy," he said skeptically, but took it nonetheless. 

"Well, I figure I owe you," she said, tendrils of smoke curling around her lips. "It's my fault we're trapped in a fuckin' cave, likely as to die from lack of air as anything else." 

"Interesting observation to make after you _light a fire_." 

She snorted. "Shut up and smoke." 

He did. His first hit went well for all of a few seconds before he began coughing violently, much to her amusement. 

"Where," he gasped, "the hells did you get this?" 

"A giant bastard in Limsa named Big Pork. And to forestall your next question, I don't ask him where he gets it." 

G'raha's second drag went marginally better and he handed the joint back to Lotus, who took it and began sucking it down with great enthusiasm. A warm, light giddiness slowly suffused his body, shading to a strange but not unpleasant electric tingling in the crystal parts of him. Suddenly, he snickered, ears twitching, then began to laugh, quietly at first but growing into full peals. She slowly turned to him with a baffled, questioning expression. 

"Big Pork," he gasped, and he felt actual tears welling up in his eyes. 

"What?" 

"Just — that name —" His shoulders shook, and she scoffed. 

"It's a perfectly good Hellsguard name! Distinctive. Strong, even." 

G'raha simply muttered "Big Pork" again under his breath between giggles. Lotus rolled her eyes exaggeratedly even as she smiled, saying, "I don't have to take this shit from a guy who advertises whether or not he fucks in his surname." 

"That's not —" he snorted between chuckles, "That's not how that works." 

"No?" 

"No!" 

Finally she joined him in laughing, and a knot in his chest that had been wound so tightly for so long that he hadn't realized it was there began to loosen. He basked for a moment in the pleasure of simply _being here_ with his oldest and dearest friend, more alive and hale than he ever dared hope. Impulsively, still smiling, he turned to her and reached out to run his fingers through her hair, felt it slip soft through his fingers despite the sweat and dust clinging to it and relished the tingle it sent across his skin. She looked slightly surprised, but did not pull away from his touch. 

"Are you angry with me, Lotus?" he asked abruptly, the words spilling out of him before he could even think them through. 

She lifted up her eyebrows, nonplussed. "What, about the chimera?" 

"No, I mean...in general, I suppose. About...anything. Everything." 

She inhaled through her teeth. "I mean. Yeah, a bit. You dragged me here and lied to me and almost made me watch you die and I'm kinda pissed off about it all. But I'm...I'm low-grade pissed off at pretty much everyone these days so I guess, uh, don't take it personal." 

"Ah. I'm...sorry." 

"I know. It's just — it's not about whether you're sorry." 

"What, then?" 

Lotus seemed to consider this, running her tongue over her lips slowly. She finally said, "D'you know how many times someone has asked me what I want and actually listened to the answer?" 

G'raha was silent for several moments before saying, voice small, "No." 

"Once," she said, punctuating the word with a jab from the lit joint. "And even then, I dunno. Shit got all political. My life stopped being mine at some point, is the point, and you — I _know_ why you did it and even if you didn't mean it badly I hate...feeling like I'm a piece people are shuffling around a big game board." 

Wordlessly, she passed the last of the joint to him, which he finished against the dregs of his better judgment. 

"I'm sorry," he repeated eventually. "But I'd do it again, you know. If it meant saving your life." 

"You've always been a big romantic idiot, Raha. Even back in the day I remember you pulling this kind of shit, though I'll admit you've stepped your game up a bit." 

G'raha smiled sheepishly and shrugged at her, and she chuckled. "I've always... had a particular fondness for you, that's all," he said, dimly aware that he would never ordinarily be quite this straightforward. "Even back then." 

Lotus slanted her eyes over to him with a wry expression. "Yeah. I know. Was a bit obvious y'know." 

"You _knew_?" he asked incredulously. 

"Raha, don't take this wrong, but you are the worst godsdamned liar on this and every other star. Of course I knew. Half the damn camp knew." 

"They did not!" 

"They were _placing bets_ ," she said a bit viciously.

"I..." He swallowed. "On what?" 

She just cackled, and he frowned thoughtfully. 

"Why didn't you say anything if you knew?" 

"Wanted to see if you'd actually do anything about it." 

He paused. "Did you?" 

"What?" 

"Bet." 

She snickered. "I won fifty gil." 

"On what!" 

"On you never saying a damn thing." Lotus was still smiling at him, but there was a rueful quality to it that made his pulse race. 

"It was...we were colleagues. Working on a dangerous project. I couldn't —" 

She waved him off. "Stop. Look. It doesn't matter now, right? You took the world's longest nap and I — I guess I had to go save the world. People like us don't get to do what we want. No fun allowed." 

G'raha could feel an undefinable _something_ slipping through his fingers, a hope he had nurtured in dreams and long centuries but never directly gave voice to, had always been too afraid to lay at her feet. He thought: What is the worst thing that could happen? She rejects him and his heart breaks. Well, it wouldn't be the first time it had broken over her, and at least this time she yet lived, and for that boon he would let her break it a thousand times over. 

"No," said G'raha finally. "No, I don't accept that." 

Turning to her, he took her face in his hands, her cheeks warm under flesh and crystal alike, and she stared at him with an uncertain expression he had rarely ever seen on her. He bent forward, then paused, and said in a low whisper, "What do you want?" 

She gazed at him and he held his breath until she said, "Tell me." 

"Tell you what?" 

"What you didn't tell me in Mor Dhona." 

And he knew, with deep certainty, that he couldn't. 

Finally given the opportunity he had dreamed of, openly invited by her even, _knowing_ she wanted him to say it, he was struck dumb. He had no words to tell her what she meant to him, what a lodestone his memories of her had been, how he had loved her, loved her — 

"Lotus," he said softly, and stopped. How could any word uttered hence hope to compete? 

He couldn't tell her. But he could show her. 

He closed the distance between them, pulling her down so he could press his lips to hers, gentle and uncertain at first until he felt her hand on the back of his neck pulling him in. Their touches grew less uncertain, more urgent, more hungry, and the feeling of her warm breath and the brush of her tongue was heady and intoxicating. She moved to shift herself toward him and hissed suddenly in pain, pulling back and clutching at her side. 

He pulled himself away with a sharp inhalation and said, "I'm — sorry. You're still hurt." 

"Gods all _piss_ on the fucking Allagans and all their bloody toys," she said acidly. She was visibly torn between acknowledgement of multiple broken albeit mending bones and the desire painted on her features. Finally, she said, "I don't want you to stop." 

G'raha nodded slowly and with movements more nimble than he expected given the pleasant heaviness of his limbs he slid behind her and pulled her gently into his lap, pressing against her bare back as she leaned back against him. Even with both of them seated his head failed to completely clear her shoulders; instead he pressed kisses along her nape as his right hand encircled her waist and his left fumbled at the laces of her breastband. As the garment loosened, she tugged it away and flung it aside herself, and he slid his warm hand up to the swell of her breast, grazing her nipple with the pad of his thumb to a soft inhalation that he took for encouragement. 

So emboldened, he slid his other hand — much cooler than her skin, as the crystal never seemed to pick up much ambient heat — past the waistband of her trousers and into the thin fabric of her smallclothes, to be greeted by dense curls already dampened. Though the tactile sensations on the crystalline parts of his body were muted at best, he could still feel the slickness of her folds, still feel the heat of her against his fingers as he experimentally brushed one up her slit. Lotus jerked and released a sharp little 'ah!', and he chuckled quietly, nipping at the back of her shoulder as he felt an old and familiar mischief color his desire. 

"Is this alright?" he asked in mock coyness, knowing the answer but wishing fervently to hear her say it. "Are you enjoying this? I can still stop, if you wish." 

"Raha," she said flatly, simmering need making her voice tremble almost imperceptibly. "If you stop now you will die in this fuckin' cave." 

He gave a little considering 'hm' and with agonizing slowness slid a finger past her folds into that tight, wet heat, feeling a shiver ripple through her body. She squirmed and bucked her hips, releasing a plaintive whimper then a pained hiss. He squeezed her tightly to still her, savoring the delicious warmth spreading from where his skin was pressed against hers, and he murmured, "Relax. Try to be still. Let me take care of you." 

He felt her struggle to still beneath him, felt her weight as she pressed herself against him, heartbeat quick beneath his palm. One by one, in moments that seemed to stretch impossibly long, he filled her with thick and unyielding fingers, and with each she whimpered high and wordless and plaintive. He moved his hand from her breast, running it up her back to run his fingers through her hair again and, struck by wild impulse, fist a portion of it and yank her head back firmly, pleased by the little groan and the arch of her back in response. He tugged and coaxed at her as he thrust into her, observing every little shiver and sharp intake of breath and inarticulate whine with all the focus he could muster against both the distracting fog in his mind and the increasingly insistent ache of his own cock. 

"I've always wanted to know what you sound like when you come," said G'raha in a low, uninhibited babble as she gave voice to increasingly urgent moans and pleading whimpers. "I imagined it so, so many times, what you must sound like, how you must look and smell and _taste_..." 

He ground himself against her and wondered how well she could feel his arousal, hoped she could feel how hard he was, how _badly_ he wanted her and had always wanted her. He pressed his open mouth against her shoulder, letting his teeth graze her skin as he hooked his fingers into her cunt and ground the heel of his palm against her, feeling her clenching tightly as she released a high, wild, breathy moan that was so utterly unlike the usual sound of her voice that it delighted him. She dug her nails into his thighs in her paroxysm, the pain sending a shiver of pleasure through him that made his cock twitch as he cooed, "Come for me, yes, _good girl._ "She flexed around his fingers as she went rigid, riding out her peak in his arms in moments that felt like hours. 

At last he felt her slacken, still panting for breath, he released her hair and withdrew his soaking hand from her smallclothes, sliding out from beneath her and rising to his knees. Hastily, he hiked up his robes in quick, fumbling gestures to free his erection, never taking his eyes from the sweetly dazed expression on her face. He brought his hand up to his mouth briefly, inhaling deeply of the musky-sweet scent of her, licking one finger and shivering before taking himself in his cunt-slicked hand. He was _so close_ already, the pressure an exquisite ache between his legs, and the obscene sound as he stroked himself with only her as lubrication brought him, trembling, to the edge. 

"Raha," she said, still panting, "Raha, let me, please." 

G'raha leaned in over her and pressed his free hand to her shoulder until she was pinned against the wall, saying, "Stay still." 

Wry smile on her face, Lotus nevertheless reached up and took his cock in her own fist, and the electric feeling of her touch undid him in but a few more strokes, sending him surging toward his release. He spilled upon her chest and stomach in jerky, frenetic gestures, gritting his teeth against a deep and low groan of pleasure and relief. 

Composure and self-control returned slowly to the both of them as they released one another and G'raha sat back on his ankles. Lotus laughed softly, scrubbing her fingers through her hair. "You've made even more of a mess of me," she said wryly. 

"So I have," he said in an exaggeratedly ponderous tone before bending to run his tongue up her torso from navel to collarbone where he'd spent on her, pausing to lap at each spatter. He didn't mind the faintly acerbic taste of himself, and glancing up he found the expression on her face for his trouble extremely gratifying, and the needy, hungry kiss that followed even moreso.

"You need rest," he murmured, pulling away after several breathless heartbeats. 

"We both need rest, I daresay. I don't suppose you're hiding any kind of bedding?" 

Carefully, G'raha disentangled the red and white fabrics of his over-robe from their fastenings, rolling them up to create a makeshift pillow which he gestured dramatically at and Lotus side-eyed. "It'll do. Only help me lie down, would you?" 

Between the drugs and the slow healing, it seemed she was already much improved, but he nonetheless maneuvered her stiffly into a supine position before sprawling out next to her. She held out her hand and made a little beckoning gesture until he slid into the crook of her arm, where she held him until they both slept. 

***

When G'raha awoke, Lotus was already nearly finished packing their things up and had turned the relatively clean portions of his outer robe into a makeshift chest wrap and braies that could possibly pass for some kind of avant-garde adventurer fashion. As he sat up and stretched with a yawn, she said a little guardedly, "Morning, I think. Feeling alright? Any uh, problems?" 

The question struck him as helplessly vague. Was he feeling alright with what? He hadn't really been injured, and the fogweed hadn't left him with any sort of hangover thankfully; on the contrary, he felt incredibly well rested considering the stone they'd slept on. And about what had happened before they'd both gone to sleep... 

"I feel incredible," he said frankly, though he could feel his face warming up. "About everything. And... you? How are you, ah, feeling?" 

To his surprise, she seemed to relax before kneeling down to kiss him, briefly but fiercely, a gesture he returned eagerly. "I feel much better," she said softly, cupping his cheek for a moment before standing back up. 

"I've good news," she said, demeanor immediately brightened. "Found a passage at the back of this cave. It's a bit narrow but I'm fairly sure I can fit, and I'm not sure but I think it might lead outside." 

"Well, that's a dear thought, not gambling on whether we'll suffocate or starve to death in this cave before we've recovered enough to teleport." His voice was dry, but the twitch of his ears made her shoot him a smirk. 

The passage was narrow indeed, forcing the much larger Lotus to contort herself into increasingly uncomfortable positions to slide and scrape her way through, much to G'raha's intense amusement and Lotus's elaborate cursing. Finally, the passage opened into a much taller, broader cavern covered in limestone deposits from the steady trickles of water dripping down the walls and ceiling. 

"There," said Lotus, pointing. G'raha moved forward slowly, unsure of his footing, until he saw a broad pool of indiscernible deepness. 

"You think it connects to the Source?" 

"One way to find out," she said, setting her tall boots next to him and dropping herself gracefully into the water. It rose merely to her hips here, but he could see where the floor dropped off into impenetrable blackness further on. He was mildly disconcerted that the several-fulm drop in her height merely elevated him to a head taller than her. 

"That lamp ain't waterproof," she said obliviously, "so I suppose I'm groping around in the dark for a bit. Give me, oh, half a bell before you start to panic, yeah?" 

"You cannot seriously be thinking of diving into a pitch black underwater cave on the off chance it connects to the outside," he said. "At least take me down with you." 

"Exactly one of us can breathe underwater, and not to put too fine a point on it but it ain't the one half made of _stone_." 

"I can swim!" 

"I've seen you swim, and no you can't." 

G'raha started opening his mouth to argue only for Lotus to press her finger against his lips and stare at him, jaw set. He huffed, then took her hand into his and pressed a nervous but tender kiss into her palm. 

"Good," she said, grinning smugly. "I'll be back soon." Then she sank in the water and was gone. 

G'raha watched the ripples slowly still in her wake. His thoughts drifted in aimless anxiety as he waited, settling finally on his admittedly blurred memories of the previous night. He had no reason to avoid those memories; after all, neither of them seemed to have any regrets, quite the contrary as far as he was concerned. She almost seemed worried that he might, which was...ridiculous. 

The water surged up suddenly, revealing the head and shoulders of Lotus as she waded back to the edge of the pool. "Right," she said, swiping water away from her nose and eyes. "I can see sunlight at the end, and, as fortune has it, the tunnel ain't too long. Clothes off, just shove 'em into the pack with my boots." 

He flushed, then heard himself saying, "I don't — that is to say, I'd rather not —" 

"You're really going to be shy with me _now_?" 

"It's only — you may well not like what you see." 

"I like you just fine, Raha," she said in mock-sweet tones. "You're not going through swathed in fifty ponzes of soaked fabric though, so deal with it." 

He hesitated still, so after a moment she added lightly, "I can help if you like." 

G'raha felt suddenly lightheaded, possibly related to his forgetting to breathe for several seconds. Before his brain managed to catch up, he realized he'd already blurted out, "Yes." 

Lotus beckoned to him from the pool and wordlessly he stepped up to its edge. She leaned in and encircled him with wet arms, running her hands over him slowly as piece by piece she unlatched, unclasped, and untied all the complex stays and fastenings of his remaining robes. Finally, with some minor wresting and tugging, she freed him of it, pulling the last piece over his head and tossing it towards her pack. When she glanced back at him, clothed only in smallclothes, she gasped involuntarily. 

He _glowed._ The dendritic crystallization covered much of his upper torso and crept partway down his narrow waist and hips, and the dim light from their lantern diffused throughout, illuminating him from within in hues of pale blue with shimmering hints of gold. It was difficult to tell in places where the crystal ended and flesh began, so well-fused were the two. 

Lotus stared at G'raha openly, stunned, as he carefully avoided looking at her. 

"I'm —" he began. 

"Beautiful," she finished for him. 

G'raha finally turned his face up to look at her as she traced the boundaries of crystal and flesh with light and reverend touches. "Does it ever hurt?" she asked. 

"Not anymore," he said, smiling and brushing stray strands of wet hair from Lotus's face. 

She returned the smile, then cleared her throat and stepped back. "Well. Ah. Come on, then. Should be room in the pack for our things. I'll carry it." 

The water was cold and, once the lantern had flickered and died some yalms into the tunnel, pitch black. Lotus held G'raha around the wrist and guided him after her as he struggled not to catch his staff on the jagged rocks. Though she'd asserted it was short, it occurred to him as his lungs began to burn that he should have clarified precisely how short she meant. They turned a corner and there, in the distance, he could see faint sunlight from above, but gods the burn was becoming more urgent by the second, a deadly and traitorous plea to just take a breath, _just one breath..._

When G'raha came to, he was sprawled out on the beach of the Source. The sun was high in a bright blue sky and pleasantly warm on his still-soaked body. 

"I can't take you fuckin' anywhere," said Lotus, looming mere ilms over him. 

"Thanks," he muttered dryly as he sat up, looking around. "Gods, how long has it been?" 

"Looks afternoon-ish now, so just about a full day." 

"Did we really sleep that long?" 

"It's really good fogweed," she said, shrugging. "And we did have uh, things keeping us busy. To pass the time." 

"It was lovely," he conceded. "My compliments to Big Pork." She shoved him lightly as he snickered. 

"Well, come on, let's get going," she said, standing up and offering her hand to him. "Once we wash and rest up at the Crystarium we got a job to finish." 

"What?" he asked incredulously. "What job?" 

"Getting my fuckin' hat back." 


End file.
